


College Daze

by Zhelana



Category: Annie (2014)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-10
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-03-03 02:50:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13331913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zhelana/pseuds/Zhelana
Summary: Annie goes to college, and finds herself being kidnapped for ransom.





	1. College

Annie finished throwing the last few things in her new car, and looked at Will, who had tears in his eyes. Choking back, he told her, “you have my credit card in case you run short on gas, and you should have a meal plan in case you run short on food. I’ve bought you 17 meals a week, and you have dining dollars for the other two and snacks. Put your textbooks on my credit card.”  
“Thanks, dad.” She tried to cut off the long litany of preparations he had made for her to go to college. They’d been through it several times already.   
“Be kind to your roommate, and make sure you eat. Make sure you drink a lot of water, especially if you drink alcohol. But don’t drink alcohol.”   
“I know, dad” she said with a touch if exasperation in her voice.   
“Okay, are you ready to go?”   
“Totally.”   
He opened his arms for a hug, and she threw herself into them. “I’ll see you at Thanksgiving,” she told him before climbing into her car.   
“I’ll pick you up in the helicopter,” he told her, and she closed the door to her car.   
“Right, Thanksgiving. That’s forever away,” he said to himself as she drove off into the distance.

It was almost exactly a four hour drive from New York City to Boston, where Annie would be attending MIT. She listened to a book on tape for the trip, stopping once about halfway there to get gas. She didn’t need the gas so much as an excuse to stretch her legs. She grabbed a diet coke and a snickers bar from the convenience store, and got back on the road. 

When she pulled up on campus, she was met by a perky blonde asking her what dorm she belonged in. She shuffled through some papers. “MacGregor Hall,” she announced finally.   
“Great! Pull off to your left, and go up the hill. You can park in front of the building long enough to get your stuff out, but then you’ll have to move to the parking lot on the other side of Bexley Hall. Your RA should be available to help you if you just walk in the door to the building. She’ll have keys and a schedule of move-in activities. Enjoy your time here!”   
“Thanks!” Annie smiled as she got back in her car and turned off the book on tape. She carefully followed the directions. It was greener than she expected, and there was a central building that looked like the capitol building. There was some unique architecture, such as a building that looked as though it had been made of a jenga set. That was, apparently, her dorm. She got to MacGregor Hall, and parked in front of it, walking in with a spring in her step. There was a table set up as a desk with several girls about Annie’s age lined up at them. She looked at signs reading “first floor,” “second floor,” and “third floor.” Cheerfully she walked up to the first floor sign. “Hi! My name is Annie Sikes,” she chirped.   
“Sikes,” muttered the girl, “oh yes! You’re in my wing! 151. Here’s a key, and here’s a schedule. I highly suggest coming to as many of these activities as you can. Good luck!”   
Annie stepped away from her desk and was met by another group of cheerful students. “Hi! We’re the Baptist Student Union. Can we help you carry your stuff from your car to your room? No obligation. But we are having a free dinner tomorrow night for freshman.”   
Annie led the way to her car, and then back into the dorm where one of the BSU students led her to her room. Her roommate was already there.   
“Hi, I’m Annie,” she said walking in holding a laundry basket full of clothes and bedding.   
“I know who you are,” her roommate said slowly.   
“Right. Well. I guess you’re Sarah?”   
“Clearly.” Sarah didn’t even pull the headphones out of her ears. Annie shrugged and turned back to the people from the BSU. “I guess the one Sarah isn’t on is my bed, so just put things over there.” Then there was a pile of stuff next to and on her bed. She left and moved her car, then walked across campus back to her room. She looked at the schedule her RA had handed her when she checked in. The first activity was a movie in the quad at sundown. She looked at her phone and decided she still probably had 3 hours before that. She started putting things away, starting with setting up her new computer at her desk. She had an external optical drive, but it didn’t come with a USB cord. She decided to go to the bookstore and get her textbooks, and grab one while she was there, so she grabbed her schedule and walked across campus again.   
The bookstore was huge and filled with everything imaginable from computer supplies to clothing, from textbooks to candy. She grabbed a basket, and walked to the back of the room, where the textbooks were kept. They were alphabetical by subject. She looked for CSCI first and found a book and a CD. It was $100 for each of them! She put them in her basket, then walked over to the history and biology sections. Her history class had ten required books, although, to be fair, each of them was a regular sized paperback and there was nothing that resembled a textbook for that class. Finally she went to the math section and found that in addition to a textbook she had to read two novels over the course of the semester. She had never considered reading novels for math. She smiled. Since she had been taught to read, it was one of her favorite activities. She was amazed that if it hadn’t been for Will she might have gone through her entire life without being able to do so. Four classes cost her $650 to buy the textbooks for them and she grabbed the cheapest USB cord she could find. Then she decided she needed to look the role of an MIT student, so she bought a sweatshirt and a t-shirt with the school logo on them. Finally, she threw a pack of M&Ms on top of everything and checked out. She used her father’s credit card to pay, and had three large bags full of books to make her way back to her room with. She walked, periodically kicking the bags, and shuffling them between hands as her hands grew sore from the plastic digging into them. She tossed the books onto her bed, and then started clearing space on her bed so she could sleep later that night. After about an hour she asked Sarah, “do you want to go to dinner with me?”   
“No,” came the reply. Annie shrugged. What had she done already to irritate her roommate? She walked across campus to the dining hall where she was asked for her student ID. “Uhm, I haven’t had one made yet,” she said.   
“Downstairs on the right, then come back,” the lunch lady said curtly, so she went downstairs and to the right. She was behind a red-haired girl in line. The line moved fairly quickly, and within 20 minutes, she had her ID and could go get dinner. There was pizza, chicken tenders, or stir fry for hot food, and there was always the option to have a salad bar. She walked that direction when someone said, “I wouldn’t.”   
“Huh?” she asked.   
“I wouldn’t eat the salad bar if I were you. The stir fry is always the safest option.”   
“Oh, okay, thanks,” she answered, grabbing a plate and putting ingredients for a stir fry on it. The sodexho employee took her plate, and a few minutes later handed her back a stir fry with peanut sauce on it. She took it to the side of the cafeteria where a TV was playing the Simpsons. If she didn’t have anyone to talk to, at least she’d watch TV. Then the red-haired girl from the line downstairs came up to her. “Can I join you?” she asked.   
“Sure,” Annie replied.   
“I’m Karen,” the girl told her as she took her seat. She had grabbed the pizza, and took a bite. She made a face, “it’s cold,” she said.   
“Someone told me the stir fry is the best option,” Annie told her before putting a bite in her own mouth. “Not bad.”   
“Are you new here?” Karen asked.   
“Yes I just got here today.”  
“Me too. I’m in MacGregor Hall,” she replied.  
“Me too. Room 151.”   
“I’m in 251, so I guess if you hear stomping over your head, it’s all me.”   
Annie laughed, “please don’t stomp!” She was used to the penthouse, but before she had met Will, she had lived below a stomper. Sometimes she tried to sing to get rid of the sounds, but it never worked. It had been years since she thought about the stomping, however, and she wasn’t eager to go back to listening to it.   
“I promise not to try to stomp,” Karen told her, also laughing.   
The girls laughed their way through dinner and then took their trays to be cleaned. “Will you be at the movie tonight?” Annie asked as they parted ways at the stairwell in the dorm.   
“I will. I’ll stop by and pick you up so we can sit together, if you want,” Karen offered.   
“Great. I’ll see you then,” Annie answered and left to go to her own room. 

When she got to her own room, Annie turned on her computer, and logged on to the internet. Or tried to. It demanded that she download a specific program to get online, and that program didn’t cooperate with her antivirus program. It suggested downloading Norton, instead of the free program she was running. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t give her an internet connection to do so. She walked back to the school store and bought a copy of Norton, then went back to her room and installed it. Sarah hadn’t moved a bit this entire time, and was just staring through her own computer with headphones on. Annie tried talking to her a couple of times, but never got more than a grunt, and eventually, she gave up. Installing Norton on her computer brought her to a page demanding a user id and password, which, it helpfully informed her, was on her schedule, which, if she didn’t have, she could access at a certain url, which it would not give her access to until she provided a userid and password. She gave up and paired the computer with her cell phone and logged on that way. She went to the provided url to try to access her schedule, but it also demanded the userid and password to access her schedule. She tried to call tech support for the school, but as it was evening, they were closed. Fortunately, it’s not like Will was hurting for money, and if Annie used a little too much data this month, it was probably alright. She continued alternating between organizing her things and using the internet on her phone’s signal for the rest of the evening until Karen came back down for her.   
The girls went to the movie in the quad. They were playing Jurassic World, which Annie found cheesy, but Karen found frightening. She jumped every time the raptors were seen which left Annie kind of laughing quietly. As the movie ended, whispers started going around about a party at one of the frat houses. Karen and Annie decided to go.


	2. Kidnapped!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annie gets kidnapped

Annie and Karen went to frat row, and joined another 75 or so people in the frat house. There was a pitcher of hunch punch on the counter, and some red solo cups beside it. They each took one, and filled it with the punch. Annie took a sip and made a face. Karen laughed, “first timer?”   
“Yeah,” Annie agreed.   
“It’s supposed to taste like that. It’s everclear. Get you fucked up fast.”   
“It’s terrible,” Annie complained.   
“Yep,” Karen agreed, sipping hers, and making her way towards the living room, where there was a disco ball hanging from the ceiling making colored lights dance in the room, and on the figures of the students dancing in the room. Holding her drink in one hand, Karen started dancing, dragging Annie into the middle of the room. Annie watched Karen and then held her own drink in her left hand and danced. Annie had been dancing since she was an orphan living at Miss Hannigan’s, and she was a good dancer. Adding alcohol made it a little more difficult and she started out less awkwardly than she ended up. As she drained her hunch punch, a boy came and joined her and Karen, and then they were joined by another couple, and finally a third boy. The first boy grabbed Annie’s hips, and started dancing with her exclusively, and Annie enjoyed the attention. She moved to the beat of the music until her drink was finished. “Let me get you another,” the boy offered, and then took her cup and disappeared. Annie rejoined Karen and the rest of the group.   
“Don’t drink anything he gets you if you didn’t see him get it for you and watch him bring it back with your own eyes,” Karen told her.   
“What?” Annie shook her head.   
The boy returned and handed Annie a cup. Annie held it in her left hand, and went back to dancing with him, her right hand in the air, and her feet becoming less and less coordinated, until it seemed she was just joining everyone else in jumping up and down in the flashing lights and calling it dancing. Finally, Annie looked at the boy, “What’s your name?” she asked suddenly, as if it were the most important question of the night.   
“Nick” he told her, “and you’re Annie.”  
“Yeah,” she agreed, without really thinking about it. She’d been famous since she met Will and Grace. She should have expected people to recognize her, even in Boston, especially since many of those people came from New York, and her twitter account had followers all over the world. She had pretty much gotten used to it, although sometimes it still disconcerted her. She drank her drink and danced progressively closer to Nick. Her head felt fuzzy. She dissociated from her feet and hands, and spilled most of the second drink down her front.   
“Oops,” Nick said, frowning, then taking it from her “you’re cut off.”   
She was suddenly feeling too sick to argue about it, so she grabbed her stomach and ran to the front door. Almost at the same time she found the door, she lurched forward, and vomited up a red liquid that splashed across the sidewalk.   
“Oh man,” she muttered.   
“Let’s get you back to your room. Were you here with that other girl we were dancing with?”   
“Yeah,” Annie shook her head. “I don’t want to bother her. I can get back.”   
“Are you sure?” Nick asked, looking back into the room.   
“Yeah, just tell her I went home, wasn’t feeling well,” Annie slurred, and started walking the wrong direction.  
“I think you’d better get your friend. You live in that direction,” Nick pointed the opposite direction. Annie took another couple of steps, and then tried to sit down on the ground. “I’ll just wait here for when she wants to leave,” she suggested, tucking her legs under her as she used to do in front of the cannoli store before she was adopted, looking for her parents. 

 

Nick figured he’d get Karen and they’d get Annie back to her dorm, so he left her sitting on the pavement, and went back inside. He found Karen and told her Annie had thrown up, and was currently being an obstinate drunk refusing help she desperately needed, sitting outside waiting for them. 

In the time that Nick was gone, a van pulled up, and two men came over and grabbed Annie. “Hey, don’t touch me!” She yelled, but no one heard, and then men pulled her into the back of the van, which quickly drove away. Annie kicked at one of the men, who moved quickly to duct tape her legs together and then sat on her legs. She sat up, trying to punch, and the other man pulled her arms behind her, duct taping her into such a stereotypical kidnapping victim position that she almost laughed. “What are you doing?” she asked, crying for the first time.   
“Making money,” the fatter man answered cheerfully.   
Annie knew there was kidnapping insurance on her that would pay the ransom these men demanded. She just hoped everything went smoothly and she got out of here safely. Certainly her father would call the insurance company and get things moving as soon as he knew anything was wrong. There was no need to panic. Right? And yet the butterflies in her stomach were quickly hitting epic proportions. She was dizzy, which was either a reaction to the alcohol or complete panic taking over, and she had no way to guess which. They hit a speed bump and the car lurched up and then down. Annie felt her stomach do the same and suddenly knew one of the effects of alcohol that many college students seem to experience all too frequently. Her stomach seized, and then let go of whatever was left in it after the first time she puked back at the frat house. “Oh gross!” one of the men yelled, shoving her away from himself.   
“Don’t shove her near me,” the other man protested and shoved her back into her own vomit. She rolled over onto her side and let her head slump to the ground. She closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she couldn’t see. She was also breathing through a burlap sack that covered her entire head. She inhaled sharply, then panicked. She tried to grab the mask off of her face, but her hands were still duct taped behind her back. “Help!” she yelled, although she knew there was no one around to help her. Something hit her hard in the face. “Shut up!” A voice snarled. 

Meanwhile, Karen and the boy from the party had walked outside to find Annie missing.   
“Lightweight,” muttered Karen. “She must have tried to walk home.”   
“Do you think we should try to find her?” the boy asked.   
They walked down to the street and looked up and down. They didn’t see anyone walking, but they did see a van just as it turned the corner.   
“No telling which direction she went,” the boy said, “she was going the wrong way when I made her sit down.” Karen shook her head.  
“I’ll check on her when I go back to the dorm. She’ll probably get there, right?”   
“I guess so,” he said, and they both walked back into the frat house, and had another drink. 

They had been driving for about two hours when the van lurched to a stop. The air was warm when the back door to the van opened. One of the men grabbed Annie by the shoulder, and roughly shoved her out the door. “Walk. And don’t try anything stupid,” he said as he climbed out the door himself.   
“Help!” Annie yelled again, just to be rewarded with a slap across the face.   
“I told you to shut up,” he snarled. He shoved her forward, and she tripped, stumbling a few steps before righting herself.   
“I guess the alcohol wore off” she thought to herself, “that’s good, anyway.”   
She heard some high pitched beeping as though an alarm were being deactivated, and then she was shoved into a cold room. She kept walking towards the back of the room, until she heard more beeps, and a door open. Then she was shoved through the door, and it was slammed behind her. She still couldn’t breathe very well through the sack on her head, so she decided the first order of business was getting untied and getting that off. She took her shoe off, and used the buckle to puncture the duct tape, and, after a while, got her hands free. Once she had her hands, it was easy to remove the bag from her head, and she sat breathing air as though she thought she never would again. 

One of the kidnappers, the driver, used a voice modulator to call Will and Grace. He yelled through the door to ask Annie for a phone number to reach her father, unless she wanted to wait for him to call the business number in the morning. Annie decided to give them Will’s cell phone number. He dialed, and then said, “we have your daughter. Seeing her alive again will cost you $10 million.”   
Will felt as though his entire world turned upside down in one sentence.   
“Who is this?” he asked.   
“Who is this?” the kidnapper repeated, “as if I’m going to give you my name? All you need to know is that I have your daughter, and I’ll kill her if I don’t get $10 million by sundown tomorrow.”   
“I can get the money, but how do I get it to you?”   
“I’ll give you 12 hours to get the money together, then I’ll call you tomorrow at noon and tell you how to get it to me,” he answered, and then hung up.


	3. Ransom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the kidnappers demand ransom.

Will’s heart sank. These were professional kidnappers, not Miss Hannigan and her fake parents who could be fooled using twitter, and a smiling face. If Annie hadn’t gotten her message out, it was clear that she couldn’t. He yelled for Grace, and then fell apart crying in her arms. Grace felt as though she just got punched in the stomach, but she was able to process things a little more clearly than Will. “Call the police, then the insurance company,” she told him with tears running down her own face, and mixing with his tears.   
“Right.” He stood up, and dialed 911 on his phone.  
“911, what is your emergency?” a cool voice on the other end of the line asked.   
“My daughter has been kid - kidnapped,” he choked on the words.   
“We’ll have an officer to your location immediately. Please stay on the line.”   
He quickly wrote on a pad of paper to Grace “call the insurance company - they want me on the line.”   
“How old is your daughter?” they asked him.   
“18.”   
“And are you sure she was kidnapped, and didn’t just leave?”   
“I received a ransom call just seconds ago,” he told them.   
“Alright with a ransom call we can continue.”   
They asked him more questions and he tried his best to answer them, although he didn’t know what she had been wearing, or what she had been planning to do that night, and nor did he know any of her friends. He didn’t think she had any yet. 

Grace called the insurance company on her cell phone, and arranged for the immediate transfer of the ransom money to her own account. They initially wanted a police officer, but agreed to speak to the officer when he got there but prepare the fund transfer immediately, for disbursement when the officer confirmed their story. 

There was a knock on the door. There was more than just a police officer there. Two officers came in with a variety of phone tapping equipment and a team of specialists. They got down to business immediately. “How did the kidnapper tell you to get him the money?” they asked.   
“He’ll call again in 12 hours, and tell us then.”   
“Excellent. That means he has to make phone contact again, and we may be able to trace him.”   
“Give me the phone he called on,” one of the technicians requested, and Will handed him his phone. The technician took it, and about five minutes later handed it back. “Don’t say anything illegal on it. The police are now listening to every word you say on here.”   
Will laughed a little too hard for what the joke demanded.   
“Listen, when they call you have to keep him on the line as long as possible. Demand proof of life; tell him you need to hear Annie’s voice. Then talk to Annie for as long as he’ll let you.”   
Will nodded. “Proof of life” he said.   
“Yeah, but don’t use those exact words or he’ll know the police are behind it.”  
“Got it.”   
“We’ll be here all night, in case anything happens, but Will, try to get some sleep.”   
“I don’t think I could possibly…” he started.   
“Take some melatonin or Benadryl and try.”  
Will nodded again, and went to the bathroom to find the Benadryl. He took four, then handed four to Grace, and they headed for the bedroom. 

Much to his surprise, the next thing he knew it was 9 in the morning, and he was waking up. Grace was sitting beside him pulling on pajama bottoms. For a second, everything seemed good. Then he remembered. He threw on a pair of shorts, and burst into the next room. “Anything?” he asked a new officer who was there.   
“No,” he replied, then offered his hand. “I’m Officer Jennings,” he told Will, “I’m from the Boston PD. We’re having to work together on this as we both have jurisdiction, both where the kidnapping occurred, and where the ransom took place.” Will nodded. “What’s being done in Boston?”   
“Well, we found her friend, Karen, who she went to a party with. She said they left her outside for a few minutes alone, and when they got back to her, she was gone, but they thought she had just wandered off and planned to check on her when she went back to her dorm. She wasn’t there, so Karen called campus security to look for her, but campus security didn’t really take it seriously and thought it was just another drunk college kid wandering off. Karen might have seen a dark colored van turning the corner, but she didn’t bother to look at the license plate.”   
Will found himself irrationally glad that Annie had already made a friend at college, and that that friend was taking care of her. He wondered if Annie had ever gotten drunk before, and he was just unaware of it. He was pretty sure she hadn’t. 

 

At exactly noon, the phone rang. Will picked it up. “Hello?”   
“Bring cash. Unmarked, nonsequential bills in a briefcase to the pier in Portland Maine,” the robotic sounding voice said without even bothering a hello.   
“Sure. Sure. Just, listen, this is a lot of money, and I need… I need to know that Annie is still alive before I bring it to you.”   
“Sure.”  
There was that beeping sound again, and a door opening, and then on the phone “hello? Dad?”   
“Annie, sweetie, are you okay?”   
“I’m scared.”  
“I know, love, but we’re going to get you home, and back to college as quickly as we can.”  
“Time’s up,” came the voice, and then there was silence on the other end. 

Officer Jennings gave Will a thumbs up. “They are calling from Portland Maine, at the pier, like he said. We know which building she is in. The FBI now has jurisdiction over the whole case, so we’ll have to get them involved.”   
Will took the suitcase full of bills that Grace provided, and climbed in to his helicopter. He started the hour long flight to Portland. The whole time his head was just rushing with thoughts like “what if this went down wrong? What if he got shot? What if Annie got shot? What if he lost her forever?” His life had been entirely incomplete without her, and losing her would likely tear him apart from Grace. He connected his phone to the bluetooth and listened to the soundtrack from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe which was his favorite relaxing music. He closed his eyes, but that only brought the dread closer to the front. He opened his eyes. This was the longest hour of his life. He tried a sudoku puzzle, but after messing it up three times he gave up. Finally, they landed.


	4. Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will Annie and Will ever see eachother again?

The door opened again, and Annie blinked against the light. She had been lying in the dark for over 12 hours, and the light was painful.   
“Up.” The man who had brought her the telephone demanded. Annie scrambled to her feet.   
“Walk.” Annie walked. As she passed through the door he put a gun to her head. She flinched, then started hyperventilating. “Stay calm,” she told herself, “you’re not worth anything to him dead.” Certainly her father had come up with the money by now, and was on his way. He had promised her they’d get her free, and he’d never broken a promise to her. There was nothing to fear. Except the gun against her head, and that was sufficient. She went completely numb and her brain went foggy. She was only able to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other over and over again. Daylight hit her eyes and she visibly flinched. She also got her first look at where she was, and her heart sank. They were on a pier, and walking closer to a medium sized boat that looked entirely seaworthy. There was no reason to believe they’d stay in American waters, and no reason to think she’d be traded for the money instead of just killed. The fact that they were being careless letting her see their faces suggested this was the plan.   
They walked from the warehouse to the docks, and Annie and the kidnapper walked up the gangplank to the waiting boat. He pushed her head down into the lower deck where once again there were no windows, and no light. She kicked something, hitting her knee. “Ouch!” she exclaimed suddenly, and the door slammed behind her. She felt the boat start rocking, and there was a sudden backwards motion along with a lurch that she knew could only mean the boat had been released from the dock. Now they could take her anywhere, and she felt the panic welling up inside her again. She hadn’t managed to sleep much of the previous 12 hours, so eventually, exhaustion overtook her, and the rocking of the boat lulled her to sleep. 

Meanwhile, the FBI was swarming the warehouse she had been kept in. Agents were all over the inside and outside of the building looking for her, but she was already gone. After about an hour, Will landed in front of the same warehouse, and the agents came to talk to him. “We missed them, but there’s cut duct tape and a hood. Someone was clearly here earlier.”   
Will clenched his jaw and his hand, but managed to reply evenly “what’s next?”   
“You go to the meeting point with the money. We surround you with snipers,” the agent told him, and then attached a microphone to the inside of his jacket, said, “if there’s any death threats, we’ll shoot,” and pointed the way to the meeting spot, which was about a mile away from the warehouse, and behind two larger buildings that would provide cover for the kidnappers and make it more difficult to get snipers in. The snipers situated themselves on top of the building, lying well out of sight. Will went that direction. There was a man waiting for him there, but no Annie. “Where is she?” he demanded.   
“She’s safe. For now. But you don’t get her back until I get my money,” he responded.   
“You get nothing until I get my daughter back,” Will replied, barely keeping his tone below a yell.   
“I get my money, I get on this radio and have her brought out,” he replied, showing a radio. “Or I can get on this radio and tell them to kill her,”   
Will looked around.   
Suddenly, a shot rang out, and the man he had been talking to slumped to the ground in a puddle of bright red.   
Will walked over to the body and kicked it as hard as he could. It probably wouldn’t do any good, but it felt good.   
The FBI agents walked up to Will, “he had a radio. We can trace where the other end of that goes to. We didn’t need him anymore, and it was too much of a risk that he’d call for her to be killed after you paid.” He called for an ambulance, but the man was already dead.   
Coast Guard helicopters swarmed the area. “She’s at sea,” the agent told Will. “We’ll find her.”   
Will sat on the curb. It had never occurred to him that he’d bring money, and not get her back immediately. Sobs overtook his body, and he shook. 

The Coast Guard were all focused on one point out to sea beyond where he could see clearly. Some of them began turning back, but three helicopters were still surrounding one point Will couldn’t see. One of the coast guard copters had an FBI negotiator with them, and he was talking over a bullhorn telling the kidnappers that he only wanted to see that Annie was alive, and then they would leave. He asked that she be brought up on deck. When that request was refused, he radioed the snipers on the other chopper to fire at will. Both of the kidnappers fell, and coast guard sailors climbed down ropes to the ship. One of them stayed above, covering the two bodies in case one of them were still alive. The other two fleeced their pockets for keys, and then ran downward, to the only place on the ship they couldn’t see from above. 

The shots had awakened Annie. At first she thought that she had been shot herself and was dead, but she realized that an afterlife that started with her being here made no sense, so she hid behind the table. Light illuminated the door frame, surrounding two bodies. “Annie?” one of them asked. She froze. The kidnappers hadn’t used her name yet. A light came on and she realized the table she was hiding behind was clear glass. She looked up through it, and saw two men wearing military uniforms. Sheepishly, she stood up. “I know a man back on land who is going to be awfully glad to see you, young lady,” the man on the left said. Together they walked up to the deck, and the man guided her to a rope that the whirlybird had dropped down to them. “Hold on tight,” he said pointing to a knot for her foot to step on. A machine on the copter pulled the rope up until a sailor there could grab her arms. He grabbed her and then fell backwards, pulling her on top of himself. “Buckle up” he told her, before lowering the rope and repeating the process for the three men below. 

Back on land, Will was still shaking with sobs, but suddenly, he heard her yell, “dad!” He shook his head. Was he hallucinating? Hoping so hard to hear her that he did? Then he heard it again, “dad!” and she jumped on him from behind.   
“Annie!” he exclaimed and hugged her.   
“Man, I am never drinking again!” she claimed, echoing millions of college students every weekend.   
“That’s what I like to hear.” He replied.   
“Is my head supposed to hurt like this?”   
He laughed and shook his head yes, “that’s a hangover,” he told her.   
“I thought I’d never see you again.” She burst into tears, and hugged him.   
“I always believed,” he said, “but I was so scared.”   
“I don’t like to interrupt, but we need to interview Annie,” the FBI agent interrupted.   
Annie let go of her father, and followed the agent to a van with surveillance equipment in it. Will couldn’t know she was still watching him when he began sobbing again, this time sobs of relief. The interview lasted about an hour, and then she was released to go back to her father. With any luck, all three kidnappers were dead, and she wouldn’t be required to testify, they told her, but there was always the possibility that one of them would wake up, and they would need her testimony. 

Will and Annie climbed into their own helicopter, and flew the hour back to New York. They picked up Grace, who was sobbing as she held Annie. “Where do you want to go to dinner?” Will asked her, as Grace composed herself.   
“Benjamins” Annie answered without hesitating.   
“Benjamins? You’ll bankrupt me, girl!” They all laughed, but headed that direction anyway. They decided to take the subway since there was no good place to land a helicopter any nearer. People pressed against Annie, and she found herself flinching away from them. She was hyperventilating again, and Will noticed, and took the family off the subway at the next stop. They walked the mile that was left of their journey together talking about the day of Annie’s college adventure before she was kidnapped, and the fact that she’d already made two friends. A car backfired in the distance, and Annie pulled away from Will to duck before realizing she was safe. He put his hand on the bottom of her neck, and she put her head against his chest for a second before realizing how awkward this position was while walking. She allowed him to continue with his hand on her back, however, and they finally made it to Benjamins.   
They sat down and ordered salads, free bread came with their meals, and they all had steak and mashed potatoes. Will and Grace ordered cocktails, but Annie abstained.   
“Alright, girl, your classes start tomorrow. Back to school with you.” Will loaded Annie and Grace into the helicopter and headed for Boston. Twenty minutes later they landed in the quad and Annie climbed out of the copter. She looked behind her as Will took off again, but she couldn’t see him. She went into her dorm building, and went up to Karen’s room.   
“Girl!” she yelled. “Tell me everything. This place has been swarming with police and FBI for the last day. Everyone’s looking for you.” Annie flopped onto her bed, and Karen sat at her desk. She rehashed the entire story over cups of hot tea. She had to pretend that everything was going back to normal, and eventually, maybe it would.


End file.
